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The AJ’s Women in Architecture issue features interviews with Elizabeth Diller, co-founder of Diller Scofidio + Renfro and winner of this year’s Jane Drew Prize; and architectural photographer Hélène Binet, who has won the Ada Louise Huxtable Prize for women working in the wider industry. PLUS We revisit O’Donnell + Tuomey’s Saw Swee Hock LSE student centre to see how it is faring five years on; the AJ’s Working in Architecture ...

People who live in glass houses . . .

Architect Chris Pollard’s connection with the Piper Building goes back several years. Before he and Ben Fereday set up their own practice, Pollard worked with Lifschutz Davidson and was responsible for preparing the planning application for the building. Fereday Pollard has contracts to fit out three of the apartments in the building; the first to be completed is this ‘bachelor pad’, like the other two apartments featured.

The brief called for a masculine feel and this has resulted in a crisp, straight-edged interior. The main level contains bedroom, bathroom, study area and kitchen/living space; the main bedroom, with en-suite bathroom and a seating area, is on the mezzanine.

Fereday Pollard decided to concentrate the comparatively modest budget on a few key features and to use inexpensive finishes. Much is made of glass: the mezzanine - reduced to two-thirds of its original size - has continuous structural-glass balustrading held in place by two steel base- plates so that it appears to be free-standing and needs no handrail. The kitchen counter top has been made from a single 3m x 1200mm x 19mm sheet of sand-blasted glass. Full height, sand-blasted doors are top hung and housed in walls and fixed sand-blasted glass screens conceal the bath and shower; the bespoke hand basin, with Vola taps, is also made of glass.

There are some clever effects, such as the cd shelf recessed into a wall in the mezzanine seating area. Floor finishes include birch plywood laid in a chequerboard pattern, and carpet in the main bedroom.

The ceiling beams, variously treated in the other schemes covered, are painted white; storage is concealed and lighting is low-voltage. But unlike the other two apartments featured, Fereday Pollard’s scheme allots a double- height space to the study, and has two stairs leading up to the mezzanine, creating an activity core at the heart of the plan without compromising the space available on either side - yet another example of the versatility of the spaces offered at the Piper Building.

Roger Scruton, chair of the government’s new Building Better, Building Beautiful commission , has attacked contemporary architecture in a provocative speech calling for a return to traditional design based on the Classical orders

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